Women's basketball shocks No. 4 Buckeyes

Only seven IU women’s basketball players dressed to defend Assembly Hall against one of the best teams in the nation.

In the end, those seven were all the team needed for sororities and other attendees to storm Branch McCracken Court.

The short-staffed Hoosiers (12-10, 5-6) staged a furious defensive effort and held
No. 4 Ohio State to just 20 second-half points en route to a 67-62 upset.

“What a great focus, oneness, team,” IU coach Felisha Legette-Jack said. “We always went by the tutelage of ‘less is more.’ Well, we were down to seven, and that has to be enough. This young team just got focused, and we played together.”

The 2,891 fans in attendance, powered by the women from the Sorority Sisterhood Challenge, were electric in the final minutes.

“It was deafening,” Legette-Jack said. “I don’t know what it feels like yet to have 17,000 people here cheering for us, but I know that 2,800 was deafaning. It was unbelievable that they gave us that extra person.”

The game marked the second time in the same week the Buckeyes (21-3, 9-2) had been upset. Purdue beat the Big Ten leader 63-61 in West Lafayette  on Monday.

“We’re not in that flow,” Ohio State coach Jim Foster said. “We’re giving up easy baskets at the (defensive) end, going against more set defenses, and the ball is not moving like it needs to move.”

IU allowed Ohio State to shoot just 22 percent from the field in the second half after the Buckeyes had registered a 46-percent effort in the first half.

“I think that they played very hard,” Foster said of the Hoosiers. “I think they did a very good job off the dribble. We just got beat too often off the dribble, and they just played a much better second half than we did in terms of ball movement, intensity, et cetera.”

Ohio State center Jantel Lavender managed just three field-goal attempts and as many points in the second half after dominating the paint and scoring 17 points in the first half.

“I just think they were packing the lanes in a lot, and our ball reversal stopped a little bit,” Lavender said. “So getting the ball in a good position where they weren’t able to double-team was becoming difficult. We just got out of the flow of our game.”

Sophomore forward Danilsa “City” Andujar, whose seven offensive rebounds and five defensive boards comprised arguably the best effort of her collegiate career, sparked the Hoosiers.

“My goal was to get 10 rebounds, but I surpassed that,” Andujar said. “I just want to keep getting better and keep helping us win.”

Despite the daunting task going into the game, the Hoosiers showed flashes of capability early in the contest.

Trailing 42-35 at half, IU scored the first four points of the second half and rallied to within one point after junior guard Jori Davis hit a layup off a steal by junior guard Whitney Lindsay with 16:33 to play.

Lindsay hit a 3-pointer with 9:37 left to rally IU back within one, and a minute later Andujar grabbed her own rebound twice in a row before draining a shot to give IU a 59-58 lead.

Ohio State regained the lead on two free throws, but Andujar hit a heavily contested shot to put the Hoosiers on top for good.

“I decided to slip the screen, and I expected to be wide open when I got there,” Andujar said. “I saw the defense come, so I just turned looking for an outlet. There was no one there, and I was like, ‘What the heck?’ So I took it, and it went in.”

IU held on through timeouts and Ohio State foul attempts to seal one of the biggest wins in the history of the school’s women’s basketball program.

“We want to continue our journey as long as we can,” Legette-Jack said. “Right now, this game is really exciting for us, but we’re not going to go too high or too low because we have such a long way to go to do what we want to do as a team.”